


Five times Vanya heard from her siblings about The Book and one time she made it all better

by writer_inthe_dark



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Character Study, Fix-It, Past Child Abuse, Personal Growth, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:34:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23264029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writer_inthe_dark/pseuds/writer_inthe_dark
Summary: Vanya wrote an autobiography. Her siblings weren't thrilled.orFive times Vanya heard from her siblings about The Book and one time she made it all better
Relationships: Vanya Hargreeves & Everyone
Comments: 24
Kudos: 215





	Five times Vanya heard from her siblings about The Book and one time she made it all better

**1\. Allison**

Vanya woke up that morning with a smile on her face. Today was the day. Today was the day her book was being released. Finally things were going to start changing.

She jumped out of bed and rushed to get ready. She quickly put on a pot of coffee and got herself a bowl of cereal for breakfast, although she didn’t have much time. She was being interviewed today and wanted to be there right on time. She hated being late. 

She showered, put on her favorite sweater and jeans, and started heading for the door. Before she got there, she noticed her answering machine was blinking red. She walked over to the phone.

**One Missed Voicemail**  
**12:32 a.m.**

Huh, she must have slept through the call. She shrugged and pressed play.

_“Hey, Vanya! It’s Allison!”_

Vanya blinked. She only ever heard from Allison on their birthday every year. Allison would typically call and leave a semi-generic voicemail for Vanya to listen to. Vanya would never call back, but Allison probably wouldn’t have ever answered. She listened on.

_“Sorry, I just realized how late it is, you’re probably asleep. But I wanted to give you a call because I just heard you wrote a book!”_

Vanya clenched her fists. What would Allison have to say about her book? She supposed it would ruin her perfect Hollywood image. It did reveal _a lot_ about their family. And it didn’t paint any of her siblings in a great light. But Allison sounded so...happy for her. Excited. Vanya shifted on her feet.

_“Why didn’t you tell me!? I literally had to hear it from some reporter just now!”_

She didn’t tell any of her siblings. Vanya was very _honest_ about her childhood and was nervous to see how they would take it. She hoped seeing their childhood through her eyes would get them to finally see how they all had treated her. She hoped they would come to her and apologise for how she was treated. Maybe they would notice her for once.

_“Anyways, that’s seriously so cool. The guy said it’s predicted to be a bestseller. I didn’t hear what it was about, but I can’t wait to read it. I'm literally going to the bookstore first thing tomorrow to pick up a copy.”_

Vanya swallowed. 

_“I’ll try you again tomorrow after I’ve started reading! Love you!”_

Vanya felt her heart racing as she heard the message end. Why was she so nervous? The book was about their lives. Everything she said in it was the truth. And of course her siblings were going to read it, but that didn’t mean they were going to be upset with her.

_Love you!_

In fact, they shouldn’t be. They had no _right_ to be. She didn’t do anything wrong. This was finally her time to shine. Allison had spent her entire life in the spotlight. It was Vanya’s turn.

_Love you!_

She didn’t do anything wrong. She was belittled by her family for her entire childhood. It doesn’t matter what they think. She did this for _herself._

_Love you!_

So screw Allison. Screw Luther, Klaus and Diego too. This wasn’t about them. This was about _her_ for once.

_Love you!_

She shook her head and continued out the door.

Allison never called again.

**2\. Klaus**

Vanya was on cloud nine when she woke up that morning. It had been a week since her book was released. She was the number one bestseller in the whole country. Her book was being translated into multiple different languages for global sale. She was doing interview after interview, being recognized on the street, signing autographs. It was everything she had always wanted. To be seen. 

Sure, Allison never called her after leaving the message that night, but she didn’t call her much anyways. Vanya was living the dream and wasn’t going to let something as trivial as her sister not calling her bring her down. 

She strolled into her living room and picked up an extra copy of the book she had on her kitchen table. She wondered if her dad had read it yet. Maybe he wouldn’t be willing to spend money on a book that painted his precious Umbrella Academy in a bad light. He was probably mad that Vanya had spilled the beans. She smirked. She would love to see the look on his face when he heard about it. After years and years of calling her ordinary, of saying she could never be like her siblings, of dismissing everything about her, he would finally have to stop and pay attention to _her_. 

She pulled out a pen and opened up the front cover of the book. Inside, she scribbled,

_Dad,_  
_I figured, why not._  
_-V_

She gave a small smile and set off to mail the book to him.

When she got back, she realized that she had an unread message left on her answering machine. The call apparently came at 4:32 a.m. (who calls at 4 in the morning?). She must have slept through it. She pressed play and went to start making coffee.

She froze as she heard the voice on the other end of the line croak out her name.

_“V-Vanya?”_

Klaus. He was crying. Why was he crying? Is this about her book? She wasn’t _that_ harsh about him, was she? She supposed she was hard on all of her siblings, but everything she said was the truth and-

_“Hey...Van...Sorry, I should probably leave you alone. I know you don’t want to hear from me.”_

Every once in a while he would stop by her apartment and he would always ask her to play the violin for him and he would fall asleep to the sound of her music. Every year for Christmas he would knit her something special. For their birthday he would make her a card with a beautiful drawing on it. So, she did enjoy hearing from him. Klaus sniffled.

_“But I heard you wrote a book about all of us. The whole academy.”_

Klaus laughed wetly. 

_“That’s hilarious. Honestly, it is. I bet Dad’s pissed.”_

Another attempt at a laugh. Another loud sniffle.

_“I wish I had written a book about that old fart. I bet you’re a better writer than me, though. I don’t know. I haven’t read it yet…”_

Vanya furrowed her brows.

_“Well, my friend was telling me- What? Oh- Ben says he’s not my friend. Ben probably knows best-”_

Vanya’s heart clenched.

_“He said that you wrote a chapter about me and that...well... I just-”_

There was a brief pause and all Vanya could hear was Klaus’ shaky breathing and the sound of her own heart beating.

_“I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”_

Oh?

_“I’m sorry. He said you wrote about how I...that I’m…”_

Klaus made a noise that sounded like a choked off sob. Vanya swallowed. She had no clue where he was going with this. She began rethinking Klaus’ whole chapter. She hadn’t shyed away from talking about his descent into addiction, and about how she always thought he was throwing away something that she had always longed for. _Powers_. But that was all true. He never seemed sensitive about his drug addiction when they were kids. She could even recall times where he would roll blunts right under the table at dinner. And he had always known that she would do anything for powers and he always knew what she thought of him wasting his. Would that make him cry? She shifted. He was probably just high and being emotional. It wasn’t her fault if he finally realized he was throwing away a gift.

_“I guess I didn’t realize you thought that about me. I mean, deep down I always worried...I guess I was right. Annoying, pathetic, embarrassing, gross-”_

Vanya’s eyes grew wide with the pause on the other line, but then Klaus came back with a shout.

 _“THAT’S WHAT SHE_ SAID, _BEN!”_

Then in a soft cracking voice,

_“It’s what she said. Peter told me that’s what Vanya said in her book, that’s what they all think of me.”_

Vanya sat frozen in place. After a moment of just sniffling on the line, Klaus returned with a small voice.

_“You could have just told me? Usually when people don’t like me, they make it loud and clear...I think that’s why I didn’t take the hint this time. I actually thought-”_

Klaus took a shuddering breath.

_“Sorry, that was stupid of me. I’ll leave all of you alone. Sorry. I’m sorry.”_

Vanya bit her lip. 

His voice came back in such a small whisper it almost couldn’t be heard.

_“I just wish one person out there actually liked me.”_

Vanya blinked.

_“I just- I didn’t- I’m sorry. ‘M so stupid. I’m sorry, Van. I’m so sorry. I just- I’ll go. I’ll stop bothering you. I shouldn’t have called. I’m so sorry. I’m-”_

The voicemail ended abruptly. She sat frozen in place for several minutes. Klaus thinks she hates him. Klaus thinks she’s embarrassed by him. He thinks she called him horrible, terrible names. That’s not _true_. If he read the book he would see-

What would he see? He would see everything Vanya wrote about him. How would he interpret her words? She wasn’t exactly kind. Maybe he shouldn’t read it…

She had to call him back. She had to set the record straight.

She pressed redial and tapped her foot anxiously as it rang. 

A groggy not-Klaus voice answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey, is Klaus there? I really need to talk to him.”

There was a pause.

“Who?”

“Klaus! Klaus Hargreeves. He called me on this number last night so I know he was there.”

“Ohhh, that guy! Yeah, I think I know who you are talking about. Yeah, he was at the party last night, but he’s not here anymore. He left a few hours ago, pretty fucked up.”

Vanya furrowed her eyebrows.

“Do you know where he went?”

“Nope. Like I said, the guy was pretty out of it when he left. Could be anywhere.”

She swallowed.

“Okay. Can you let me know if he stops by?”

“Sure. Not likely that he will though. I had never seen him before last night.”

She closed her eyes.

“Okay.”

Vanya hung up the phone and reached for her medication.

Okay, Vanya tried to rethink things rationally. She was just freaking out because he was so emotional about it. She needed to think of the facts. Was she hard on her siblings? Yes. Did they deserve it, though? _Yes_. The man on the phone said himself that Klaus was very messed up last night, his emotional reaction was probably just a result of the drugs in his system. She doubted he would even remember calling her when he sobers up. 

He was out of it. Mentioning Ben. Feeling sorry for himself. Acting like no one liked him.

She rolled her eyes. _Everyone_ liked him. Funny, silly, cool Seance. Charming the world with his ghostly abilities and wacky personality. If anyone should feel unliked, it should be _her_. She was finally getting people to notice her, and he was going to call and try to make her feel guilty for it? She shouldn’t feel bad for making her siblings realize how badly they treated her their whole lives. Why should she be blamed for this? She poured herself a cup of coffee and tried to wash the voicemail out of her mind.

Klaus never stopped by or sent her anything after that.

**3\. Diego**

It had been a month since her book was released. Still at the top of the bestseller’s list. Still a sensation. Yet Vanya was kinda over it. She hadn’t heard from her father about the book, he probably hadn’t even read it. She had gotten the fame she had always wanted, yet it felt...hollow. Despite everything, she still felt lonely. She couldn’t get Klaus’ stupid voicemail out of her head and thinking about how Allison never called her back always makes her feel vaguely uncomfortable. 

She sighed and settled into her couch. She had an exciting night of watching TV and eating leftover pizza planned. She had just gotten comfortable when her door burst open with a _SLAM!_

Vanya yelped and sprung out of her seat as Diego stormed into her apartment and focused in on her with complete fury.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

He held up her book _-The Book-_ with a look of pure anger. 

Vanya only managed to stammer out an “I-” with her heart still pounding from the initial scare of him bursting into the room. It must have been a rhetorical question because Diego continued on.

“Is this some kind of fucking joke?!”

“What?”

“After what happened to us?! After what happened to _Ben?!_ You still fucking wanted that for you?!”

“I-”

“You would see us go with dad to our _‘special training’_ and come back _fucked_ and you still thought, _‘yeah that seems fucking NICE’?!”_

“Well-”

“You remember when Allison wouldn’t speak for a month? You wanna know why?! She told me that dad dragged some guy in front of her during her training and made her rumor him into picking up a gun and fucking _shooting_ himself. Right in front of her. Just to test the limit of what she can make someone do. He made her rumor the guy into killing himself. That was when we were ten.”

Vanya swallowed. Diego went on.

“He made Five teleport until he puked. He made Luther carry shit for hours until he literally collapsed. And Lord only knows what he did to Klaus! To this day, he refuses to talk about it. All I know is he _still_ wakes up screaming.”

Diego had grown quieter as he went on, anger sizzling into something else. He leveled Vanya with an unreadable expression as he carried on.

“You know, I still can’t get in a pool. He used to lock me in a water tank overnight to force me to practice the whole ‘holding my breath indefinitely’ thing. It would be pitch black. No sound. No sight. I could never tell how long I had been in there. It would just feel like I was never getting out.”

Vanya looked down. Diego took an unsteady breath.

“You spent your whole life wanting to be like us. But we would have given anything to be just like you.”

Vanya continued staring at her shoes and said in a small voice, “I just wanted to be special.”

The words reignited Diego’s anger. 

“And what about us was so special? Was it _special_ that we were all killers before we were old enough to drive? Was it _special_ when we would come home from those missions beaten and bloody? How about when Ben’s powers fucking _killed_ him? Do you think that was _special_ , Van?”

Vanya bit her lip and blinked tears out of her eyes. There was nothing to say. She heard Diego huff out a scoff and storm over to the door. He stopped and turned to her. She looked up to meet his eyes.

“Next time you want to throw a hissy fit at dad about your self esteem issues, leave us out of it.”

With that, he tossed The Book over his shoulder and left. 

Vanya sunk back into her couch and sat there for hours.

**4\. Luther**

It had been one year since The Book. One year without any visits from Klaus. One year without any calls from Allison. One year without hearing from Diego.

She had started seeing a therapist. It was good to talk through the things she had always thought. To vent. He would always just nod his head in agreement to whatever she was saying, so she must have been in the right. 

One thing he had encouraged her to do was to visit Luther. He was the only one who hadn’t reached out to her since she moved out. Maybe she wasn’t good enough to be acknowledged. She wouldn’t be surprised.

But he was also the only one who she hadn’t heard from about The Book. 

It could be that he hadn’t read it. She didn’t know. But if he hadn’t, then maybe he would be willing to see her, unlike the rest of her siblings who hadn’t tried to talk to her all year. 

So here she was. Standing on The Academy’s doorstep. Feeling smaller than ever.

She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

She waited for what felt like an eternity before the door swung open and Luther was standing before her. He was still in his pajamas despite it being one in the afternoon. A wave of shock passed over his face as he said,

“Vanya?”

She tried to smile.

“Hi, Luther.”

His shock changed into something that almost looked hopeful as he asked,

“Are you coming back?”

Vanya blinked.

“Back?”

“To the Academy!” 

Vanya blinked again. The thought that she would ever want to come back here was laughable.

“Oh...no, I just wanted to stop by and see you.”

His face fell.

“Oh...why?”

A pang of annoyance hit her.

“‘Why?’I just wanted to see you.”

Luther shifted on his feet, uncomfortable. 

“Oh...well, it’s just that you wrote that book and...it kinda seemed like you wanted nothing to do with us.”

Vanya crossed her arms. The fucking _Book_.

“Is that what you got from that?”

Luther blinked.

“Was I not supposed to? It kinda seemed like…”

“Like…?”

“Well, from what you said in the book...it sounded like you didn’t really like any of us.”

“Oh.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. It seems like _all_ of her siblings got that from The Book. Of _course_ they wouldn’t pay attention to anything she was actually saying in it, they only thought about how _they_ felt. It’s always about them, isn’t it?

As the silence dragged on, Luther started looking more and more uncomfortable. He started talking to fill the void.

“And, uh, you’ve never wanted to see me before? I’ve heard from all our other siblings, but never from you. Allison calls. Klaus sends letters. I even got a letter from Diego when he joined the police academy. But never from you. I always figured you wanted to forget about me.”

Vanya looked at him, “You’ve never tried to talk to me, either.”

“Huh,” Luther scratched his head, “I guess it’s a two-way street.”

She looked at him. He looked back. She sighed. This was a mistake. They were all the same.

“Well,” she said, “I should go.” 

She turned and started walking away, but stopped when she heard a yell.

“Wait!” 

She turned back to look at him. Luther shifted on his feet, “Do you wanna come in? For a bit?”

She looked at the house, then back at him. She was just _tired_. Defeated. She was over it. Nothing was going to mend with any of her siblings, anyway. This was pointless. She shook her head.

“Goodbye, Luther.”

And she walked away.

**5\. Five**

Dad died. Vanya shouldn’t have been shocked, but she was. Despite his age, he seemed like someone who would never die. Someone who would always have a watchful eye over her life, reminding her that she wasn’t anything special. 

Vanya almost didn’t go to the funeral. Why should she? To respect a man who she despised? To see her siblings that hated her? 

She thought it would be closure. That’s why she came. She could try to forget the man who ignored her for her entire childhood. Forget how insignificant she always felt. Forget how ordinary she was.

But that wasn't possible, was it? Because her siblings were here. Her superpowered, holier-than-thou siblings who still couldn’t seem to get over themselves. It had been years since she wrote that book. Her feelings for it were a mixed bag. Pride, regret, indifference, but most of all, she just felt tired. She was tired of trying. Tired of feeling helpless and ignored. Tired of hoping they would understand.

Allison had made an awkward attempt at conversation. Maybe Allison feels bad for her. Diego was still furious with her. The insults made her feel small and angry, and she felt her own resentment festering. And Klaus wouldn’t even look at her. Not a single word of conversation from her most talkative sibling. Luther just gave her a solemn nod when he saw her, although that’s probably what most of the siblings received from him. She wasn’t special.

She ignored it, mostly. She didn’t expect this to be some big family rekindling where her siblings would embrace her with a warm hug and apologise for all they had ever done to her. If they wanted to give her the cold shoulder, she would give one right back. She came here to see Reginald put in the ground and finally forget him and everyone else in her family. 

Except... Five was back. Five who didn’t hate her, who would try to include her even though she didn’t have powers, who was the only one who understood her.

She walked into the living room to see him standing there, staring up at his portrait. He looked the exact same even though so much had changed. He seemed...different. Five was always pretty intense when they were kids, but nothing like this. 

“Nice to know Dad didn’t forget me.”

He turned around and Vanya couldn’t help but stare. He had changed out of the oversized suit and put on one of his old Academy uniforms. Like he stepped right out of a memory and into the present.

“I read your book, by the way. I found it in the library that was still standing.”

Vanya stood frozen as he casually paced around her, looking around the room. She swallowed. Would he hate her too?

“I thought it was pretty good, all things considered.”

She blinked.

“Yeah, definitely ballsy. Giving up the family secrets…I’m sure that went over well.”

She wanted to laugh but couldn’t bring herself to.

“They hate me,” Vanya said. She tried to keep the hurt out of her voice. What’s worse: being hated or being ignored? She couldn’t tell.

“Well, there are worse things that can happen,” he said looking up at her.

Vanya tried not to let any emotion show on her face at that. Ben. If Five had really read her book, he would know that Ben was dead. She didn’t include all of the gruesome details -despite what her siblings may say, she did have some restraint with what she wrote- but she wasn’t shy about writing the aftermath. 

“You mean like what happened to Ben?”

Five was silent for a moment before responding.

“Was it bad?”

Vanya could only nod her head.

Five swallowed and looked away. 

They stood there for a moment, enveloped in silence. Then Five took a deep breath and muttered something about getting a cup of coffee before using his powers to zap away, leaving her all alone. That’s what she always was, wasn’t she? Alone. She sighed and went to call a taxi. She shouldn’t have come here to a family that didn’t want her.

 **+1**

Vanya fucked up. 

She fucked up _big time._

She fucked up more than anyone in the history of the world had probably fucked up. Like, who else can say they caused the _apocalypse?_

Her siblings had _thankfully_ saved the day. Five had transported them back in time while Vanya was unconscious. She woke up with her ears ringing painfully. She was confused and scared, but her family was there and they had all hugged her. A real, genuine, emotional hug like nothing she had ever received before. And she started to cry. Soon enough, the whole family was crying.

That was four months ago. They were all living in The Academy, but it was different now. They would all bond as a family and hang out together. It was like they were all getting to know each other for the first time. Vanya found herself discovering new things about her siblings every day.

She learned Luther wrote poetry, but was too shy to share the poems with anyone. One night, they had all managed to coax one out of him and it was a beautiful poem about the stars that had moved Klaus to tears. She learned Diego liked to crochet, and would often spend his evenings crocheting with Grace in the living room. She learned Allison loved to bake and that pecan pie was her favorite. Allison said that Claire wanted to be a baker when she grew up. She learned Klaus was an amazing artist. He had a sketch book that was filled to the brim with drawings of ghosts, of their family, of nature. She learned Five knew how to swing dance. She convinced him to teach everyone after he had had one too many margaritas, and they all danced the night away. She learned that Ben- _(Ben!)_ Ben could quote every single word of Legally Blonde, but would still choose it whenever it was his turn for movie nights.

Above all else, she had come to learn how wrong she was. About _a lot_ of things. 

She was so sure that her siblings needed to apologize to _her_. That she was the sole victim of their childhood. That everything that had ever happened to them was only unfair to _her_. 

She couldn’t have been more wrong. 

They were all victims of their childhoods. No one got out unscathed. 

That night all those years ago when Diego had yelled at her over the book and asked how she could ever want powers after seeing how much they had hurt them had been pushed out of her mind until recently. She had, at the time, been unsympathetic. She had thought, “Yeah, training must have sucked, but that couldn’t have been worse than _this_. If only they could try to see things from _my_ perspective, then they’d stop complaining.” 

She regrets that now. She regrets so much.

She started seeing a therapist again. A different one than before, though. It turns out her previous therapist wasn’t as helpful as she had once thought. But the new one, Dr. Kelly, she challenges Vanya. She doesn’t just nod along to whatever Vanya says, she tries to get Vanya to ask herself _why_ she thinks what she does. 

And she’s helped Vanya think about her childhood in a healthy way. She was abused and neglected. And _so were her_ siblings. They were all hurt, but that doesn’t mean they can’t grow. This is a completely fresh start for the Hargreeves. They just have to leave all their resentment and hurt in the past, acknowledge their mistakes, and finally move forward. That’s the only way they can grow.

The truth is, Reginald fucked them up. He gave them all a uniquely terrible childhood that left them as emotionally stunted adults. Now it’s up to them to grow past it.

She took a deep breath. She knew what she wanted to do now, but it made her nervous. All she wanted to do was go in her room and sit alone, but then her therapist's voice would creep into her head.

_“You often self-isolate, Vanya. I believe this stems from the treatment you received from your father as a child. Would you say you still blame those around you for your isolation, even though you have lived away from your father for years?”_

Vanya breathed in and stood tall. Her siblings were all outside, waiting for her. They were having a bonfire tonight, and she had gone in to grab some supplies for s'mores, but that wasn’t all she grabbed.

She stepped outside and saw her siblings surrounding the firepit in their courtyard. They were all laughing and smiling and looking as happy as ever. Vanya couldn’t imagine life without them now. She set the s’more supplies down, which were immediately plucked up by Five and distributed excitedly, and she tried to muster up the courage for what she was about to say.

She cleared her throat. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with one hand, the other still behind her back and hiding _it_ from her siblings. She took a shaking breath.

“Um, hey, before we start I want to say something.”

Her siblings all paused and looked up at her with varying levels of surprise. Even though her confidence had grown in these past few months, she hasn’t exactly been making announcements or any grand speeches like this. She took a deep breath.

“Well, I wanted to start off by saying I’m sorry.”

Allison blinked.

“You don’t have to apologise for anything,” She said.

But Vanya shook her head, “Yes I do. There’s a lot of things I have to say, and an apology is one of them. I know you guys might not have been perfect siblings, but neither was I.”

She swallowed, building up courage.

“I mean, I was selfish. I’ve been mad at you all for so long for things that weren’t really your fault. The truth is, Reginald fucked us all up. I mean, he made me feel worthless. And he raised me to be left out of everything. But then we all moved out, and I still let myself be left out. I didn’t try to reconnect with any of you or reach out to actually talk out what I was feeling. Instead, I just let myself be so full of resentment without ever dealing with it, and it just built up and up and up until...well, you know.”

She laughed uncomfortably and cleared her throat.

“But now it’s time for me to grow up.”

She took a deep breath. All of her siblings were watching her with wide eyes.

“It could be easy for me to blame the apocalypse on everyone else. I could blame you guys, my powers, Leonard, _Dad_ , but...I can’t. The truth is, I am responsible for my own actions. I can’t keep acting like everything in my life is someone else’s fault. Sure, bad things have happened to me, and they might explain my mistakes but they don’t excuse them. And...I feel like one of the bigger mistakes I made in life...was this…”

She pulled The Book from behind her back. She looked down at it in her shaking hands. 

“I felt a lot of resentment when I wrote this. I was angry at Dad, angry at you, angry at _everything,_ and I felt like publishing this would be the key to my happiness. I remember feeling angry that you all didn’t see it that way. It’s stupid, I know, but a part of me actually thought you all would come to me with some sort of apology after reading it. The apocalypse has been a real awakening for me, and now I understand how much I hurt you all with this book. I should have come to you and talked through things like an adult, instead of writing _this_ ,” She gestured to The Book, “I can’t change the past, but I can promise that going forward I’m going to try to be a better sister. I’m sorry, for everything. I love you guys so much, and I know that you love me too. So, here,”

At that, she tossed The Book into the fire. It landed with a _thud_ in the midst of the flames. The pages were curling and burning in the heat. She looked up to see her siblings all staring at it with wide eyes. There was silence.

“So, uh, yeah,” Vanya concluded intelligently. She felt embarrassed by the silence. But then Klaus looked up at her with a smile spreading across his face. He laughed and began clapping and cheering. He elbowed Five sitting next to him until he started clapping as well. Soon enough, the whole family was cheering on the burning of The Book. 

She smiled. The night went on and she received an endless supply of hugs and love from her family. They ate s’mores, told each other stores, and all simply enjoyed each other’s presence. At one point her and Allison were sitting together sharing a blanket as Klaus was giving some sort of Shakespearean reenactment. As the rest of her siblings were thoroughly enthralled by the tale, Allison softly spoke.

“Hey, Van, you know the rest of us are still so sorry for how we treated you, right?”

Vanya scrunched her nose, “Of course I know that.”

And she really did. Allison smiled, “I know you know. And we knew you were sorry too, sometimes it just feels good to hear.”

Vanya smiled and looked back at the fire, “We’re really figuring it out, huh?”

Allison laughed softly, “Took us long enough.”

Allison wrapped an arm around her and pulled Vanya close. Vanya leaned in to put her head on Allison’s shoulder. They sat cuddled together next to the warm glow of the fire. Their siblings were all laughing with complete joy all around them. Vanya smiled.

She had never felt more loved.

**Author's Note:**

> :)  
> soooo i have very mixed feelings for how this turned out..I have had it finished for a bit but didn't post it right away because I keep wanting to change things. I still want to keep messing with it, but I figured if I didn't post it now then I never would lol  
> But I'd love to hear your feedback!! Please comment what you think!!


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